DAIRY MEETING. 195 



investment- — for cows, barn, milkhouse and utensils, averaged 

 $T0O per cow, the dairy paid a profit or dividend of 8.33%. 

 This is more than the income from ordinary investments. The 

 professor says it is not a great profit for the skill and risks 

 involved, which is true. But he has included in his expense 

 account $5 per cow for owner's skill and in addition what he 

 thought was proper for risk. 



You will recognize that here is a problem of considera-ble 

 magnitude when practical men keeping accounts vary all the 

 way from $40 to $186 in their ideas as to the cost of keeping 

 a cow a year. It would hardly be possible to find any other 

 business where the cost of production by diflferent manufactur- 

 ers would vary in the ratio of 40 to 186. It is impossible to 

 conceive of such a condition in railroading, in cotton manu- 

 facturing or in anything else ; and such figures incline us to 

 endorse the expression of Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, who, 

 after a tour of investigation in this country, said that "the weak 

 point in American rural economy is the failure on the part of 

 farmers to adopt good business methods." 



But this is only a part of the problem. Cows in regular 

 working dairies are annually producing all the way from 3,000 

 pounds of milk and below, up to 10,000 pounds and even more. 

 Exceptional animals have gone to 27,000 pounds. The whole 

 problem, then, as to the cost of a quart or of one hundred 

 pounds of milk is something like this: If it costs from $40 

 to $186 to keep a cow a year and if a cow produces from 3,000 

 to 10,000 pounds of milk a year, what is the cost of a quart of 

 milk or of one hundred pounds of milk? 



And with such variations in product the thought again comes 

 to mind that the business end of farming is much neglected. 

 And with such uncertainty as to precise data, the expense of 

 producing milk becomes something of an enigma. 



Professor Erf of Ohio says that if it costs $102 per year 

 to keep a cow and if the cow gives 3,000 pounds of milk per 

 year the cost is 7.3 cents per quart; if 4,000 pounds per year, 

 5.5 cents per quart; if 5,000 pounds per year, 4.4 cents per 

 quart; if 6,000 pounds per year, 3.6 cents per quart; if 7,000 

 pounds of milk per year, 3.1 cents per quart. Here there is 

 a range in cost of from 3.1 to 7.3 cents per quart, depending 

 entirely on the amount of the product, the cost of keeping the 



